EX-PRISONER TELLS OF ORDEAL WITH GUERRILLAS

Colombian Rebels Planning To Release 242 More Today

CALI, Colombia - When guerrillas shot down his helicopter in April 2000,
Colombian National Police Col. Alvaro Acosta wished he had given one last
kiss to his wife and children that morning, because he was certain that
death was imminent.

Bullets were flying everywhere, he said. His spinal column had been so
wrenched in the crash that he was paralyzed from the chest down. His
rescuers - guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or
FARC - quickly became the escorts on his 14-month trip through hell.

After an ordeal so intense that he attempted suicide three times, the
colonel - one of more than 500 Colombian police and military personnel
captured and held prisoner by the nation's largest guerrilla group during
the last three years - was released early this month. FARC commanders freed
43 prisoners, starting with Col. Acosta, in hopes that the government would
reciprocate by freeing some of the 700 guerrilla combatants serving time in
Colombian prisons.

And Thursday, the FARC plans to release at least 242 additional prisoners
during a ceremony in southern Colombia.

Some Colombians say the mass release could signal an important shift in a
30-month-old peace process that, until now, has yielded only miniscule
progress. Others remain skeptical, saying the release was not a peace
gesture but rather a tactical move by the FARC to improve its mobility in
the jungles of Colombia and unburden rebels from having to guard, feed and
hide such a large number of prisoners.

So far, the government has released only 11 guerrilla prisoners. Colombian
military commanders oppose any future exchanges, saying soldiers and
policemen captured while defending their country should not be exchanged
for what they call "criminals" convicted of treason and acts of terrorism
against the state.

Intentions Questioned

Skeptics inside and outside the government say there are many signs that
the FARC has no intention of following up the prisoner release with other
gestures, such as a cease-fire, to advance the peace process. They note,
for example, that the FARC launched major attacks last week that left 30
military personnel dead in southern Putumayo province and six dead at
Bogota's La Picota prison, which the rebels attacked to free 98 prisoners.
FARC commanders said Monday that they ordered the prison attack to show
that they were capable of forcing the release of guerrilla prisoners even
if the government didn't want to hand them over. In addition, the FARC said
it was prepared to launch other assaults on urban centers.

"Our goal is to pull out FARC prisoners from all the prisons in the country
because the government has refused to carry out an exchange. Our duty as
revolutionaries is to pull out [the captured rebels] by whatever means we
can, and we will continue whatever efforts we regard as necessary," said
Jorge Briceno, the FARC's top military commander.

Government peace negotiator Luis Guillermo Giraldo said the latest rebel
actions appeared to bode ill for the peace process.

"It seems the FARC wants to intensify the war in the middle of the
negotiations," he told Colombian radio on Tuesday. "We should begin
thinking about what our alternative may be, the fact that there might be no
peace process [in the future], and prepare for that possibility."

'Humanitarian Gesture'

In spite of their ordeal, some of the prisoners already released by the
FARC now are among the most outspoken advocates of the peace process. Col.
Acosta, for example, said he believed the FARC was making a "true
humanitarian gesture" and a "clear demonstration of their desire to advance
the peace process." Interviewed last Saturday in his hospital room, where
he is still recovering after his release June 6, Col. Acosta said he
continued to revile the 17,000-member guerrilla force and bore no sympathy
for the mission they were pursuing to overthrow the government and install
a Marxist regime.

"I have no respect for them whatsoever," he said. "I saw how they work. I
know how they operate."

At the same time, he said, "I'm very satisfied with what they are doing" in
the peace process.

The Colombian police and military have everything to gain from such a
release, he said. Although the guerrilla prisoners have spent much of their
time sitting in prisons, the captives held by the FARC have been present
during combat missions and long hikes through the jungles, Col. Acosta
said. The intelligence he and others were able to gather could be invaluable.

"I have gained very important information from this experience," he said.
"I won't say what I've learned, because these are strategic secrets that we
can use in the war."

'New Sense Of Respect'

Jose Crisanto Contreras, 31, a police patrolman captured in 1998 and held
for nearly three years before his release this month, said his experience
traveling with the guerrillas left him with a "new sense of respect for
what they are capable of doing" in battle. "Like others, I underestimated
them, and to underestimate your enemy is the worst mistake anyone can make
in war," he said during an interview in Bogota.

Pablo Alberto Romero, 23, another policeman captured in 1998 and recently
released, said the rebels spent hours trying to explain their motives and
philosophies to their captives.

"I never once thought of them as anything but the enemy," he said. "But
after three years with them, I do have a much better understanding of them.
I know how they live. I saw them in combat. They don't know it, but they
trained me" how to fight them better.

Col. Acosta spent 14 months confined to bed or lying in a hammock slung
beneath a pole as FARC fighters carried him up mountains and through dense
jungle during operations. He said the rebels stayed constantly on the move
to escape detection by the military.

He was able to learn how they hide from government surveillance aircraft,
what their battlefield tactics are, and how they establish routes of escape.

There were times during his captivity when the pain was so intense that he
begged his captors to "put a bullet in my head," he said. "I told them, if
you're going to torture me like this, then kill me."

His one moment of hope came midway through his captivity, when several
government planes and helicopters seemed to zero in on a site where he was
imprisoned. One helicopter flew so close that he could see the eyes of a
soldier on board.

It appeared that, finally, a rescue attempt was being executed. Instead,
the aircraft spent the next two hours dumping a U.S.-supplied drug-crop
herbicide on him.

His captors had hidden him next to an opium field.